Barry Hayslett’s Story – CA

Hi Dave,

Thanks for putting together this site. Our 13 year old cat Bailey went in for surgery
last Monday to remove 10 large bladder stones. After surgery he was doing well
and was eating. The next day, though, he was straining to urinate and we took him
back in. They flushed out his uretha and then gave us Metacam and some muscle
relaxers to help him. After the third .5ml per day dose of Metacam, he vomitted and
refused to eat for days. We just found out this morning that he is in kidney failure.
The hospitalization is very expensive for the seven days they estismate it will take to
save him if he can be saved. It was encouraging to see that so many cats have
pulled through using the iv fluids and some of them in less than seven days. The clinic said
that most likely the failure was due to the Metacam, but it also is a chance that
it could be due to something she said happens in surgery. Like others who have posted,
my vet made no mention of the risks with the drug. Our Kitty does not even get vaccinated
because he has a poor immune system and has suffered major health problems in the
past. They did say that there really is no other pain med they could give him that
is also an antiflamatory since his bladder was in bad shape from the large number and
large size of the stones he had. I have not read all the posts, but was wondering
if anyone has found a good alternative drug. The emergency clinic yesterday put him
on buprenex? not sure of the spelling. alias “kitty morphine”. But our regular vet said that
it does not have antiflamatory properties and that was needed to help repair his
bladder.

Bailey spent today at our regular vets on fluids and was transferred to a 24 hr
emergency clinic tonight. When I took him in this morning, the cat who is usually
so affectionate and clingy, was non-responsive to us and did not want to be petted.
After getting fluids for the day, he was vigorously rubbing his head against my hand.
So I am hopeful that it is a sign he will pull through fine and maybe quicker than
they expect.

Thanks,
Linda

Hi Dave,

We lost Bailey yesterday. His creatinine numbers were coming down very slowly even though he was looking well and seemed to feel well eating a lot and being very affectionate with the clinic staff. After a few days, though, he went into heart failure. They did a scan and found that he had a hole in his heart, probably a birth defect. We were still hopeful to be able to reverse both, but he started to go down hill quickly and was in an oxygen tent. He had refused to eat for several days and was very uncomfortable. We euthanized him once his cardiologist, internal medicine specialist, emergency vet and regular vet all agreed that there was not much more we could do. We waited until we got a sign from him that he was ready.

It makes us upset and angry if it was the metacam. There is still a chance that the surgery could have triggered it and Bailey had 3 other times he almost did not make it due to a bacterial infection in his system. So it could have also been that the infection came back. The last time it was sealed in a pocket in his peritoneum wall so we are wondering if it was walled off again and maybe got released during surgery. During surgery they found so much scar tissue in his abdominal cavity.

We are still grateful for the stories that had given us hope and we know that we did everything we could for Bailey. We talked to our vet and they agreed to have a meeting with all the staff doctors and discuss this issue and be required to inform the owners of any cats who they want to prescribe metacam to of the risks. Also, if the owners choose to use the drug, to make them aware of the symptoms of renal failure so that the owner can get their cat in as quick as possible. They prescribe metacam to a lot of cats and have not had problems with it. But I know with Bailey’s fragile immune system and past problems we would have made the decision not to use it. So this change in their policy may save another cat from going through what Bailey did.